Replacing "We" With "Me"

We are taught that what are most important are our rights as individuals. Our god is free-enterprise, the unchecked, unregulated right to make as much as we like, even at the expense of our society and our earth. We see regulations as a threat to our individual rights to do business and make a profit.

We are urged to think of ourselves first. If I am not old, why should I pay for those on Social Security or Medicare? If I don’t have children, why should I care about education? If I’m not gay, not an illegal immigrant, not unemployed, not losing my house, not confronting an unwanted pregnancy…

And when crisis affects me, I will blame myself. I will think I am alone. I will think I have to solve my own problems. I certainly won’t blame a broken social system.
~ from 'We the People' or 'I the Person'? by Linda Wagner Schmoldt ~

Over the years, I have had more than a few people ask me: Why a blog on Philosophical Taoism? A follow-up question that is asked as well is: What does an ancient Chinese philosophy have to do with the modern world?

Schmoldt's essay highlights a prime reason why I have devoted a significant portion of the last 7 years to the study of the writings of the Taoist sages. It is the "Me First" mentality that permeates our world at the great expense of the community of "we."

Taoism stresses the interconnection of all things. If all things come from one source, then each of us is a brother and sister to everyone and everything in existence -- past, present and future. There is a tie that binds us. All of these categories, labels and barriers we erect are artificial contrivances based on our ego-driven desires.

While Philosophical Taoism stresses that each individual form possess its own true nature and must find its own path in this realm, it also underscores the symbiotic relationships that we share in common. In other words, none of us can exist as island unto ourselves. We share a common space called Mother Earth and so we must work together in harmony to insure it remains a hospitable habitat for all.

This is one of the prime reasons I rail against the current economic and political system that dominates the US and, by extension, much of the world. It is a system that endeavors to isolate each of us from everyone else and always to think of the selfish me instead of the communal we.

Such a system runs counter to the Way (i.e., the laws of nature). If nature operated in this way, life -- at least human life -- would have ended eons ago! The world today would be controlled by cockroaches and super viruses; human civilization would be a distant memory.

We have a responsibility not only to ourselves as a species but to all life forms to accentuate the existence we have been blessed with. When we degrade or oppress one life form, it degrades and oppresses the totality of life. An injury to one is an injury to all.

It is this perspective that urges me on in the writings on this blog.